Mailbag

A Call for Jonathan Hoffman to Join the Common Reality

To Danehy (Jan. 13): As the right often points out, we have lost our moral compass. So, as Sarah Palin suggested, the best way to regain it is to get back to the days when political opponents would have a duel to settle political differences. Deciding what is moral today takes too much effort, and it's easy to get confused.

To Jonathan Hoffman (Guest Commentary, Jan. 13): Finally, someone has the courage to speak the truth—the truth, as seen from inside his head, completely detached from bothersome historical facts, and without the slightest attempt to address the complexity of the relationship between the private sector and the public sector, while at the same time completely ignoring the true causes of our current economic predicament, as if somehow California and Arizona were isolated islands completely disentangled from the national and global economies.

Seriously, Hoffman, you're not an idiot. This crap you've been writing is from the Glenn Beck book of How to Undermine Intelligent Discussion.

Step up. Fight for the conservative cause, but do it from the common reality, not the one where all the evidence that doesn't support your argument is conveniently disregarded.

Satch Sanders

Boegle's Wrong, and Danehy's Right: Violent Rhetoric Is a Factor

Jimmy Boegle: Thank you for your thoughtful and heartfelt comment (Editor's Note) in the Tucson Weekly of Jan. 13. Many people in our community rely on the Weekly for local news, and you did not disappoint.

However, I hate to admit that I agree more with Danehy about the violent rhetoric. While not a direct cause of the shootings, terms like "reload" and "Second Amendment remedies" used by Republican politicians are an invitation to take up arms against those we disagree with politically. It is a factor, if not the direct cause.

Tex Shelters, aka Joe Callahan

Maybe the GOP Got the President's Message

One week after the bloodbath of Jan. 8, I had to go buy ammo for my growing inventory of guns out at the (gun show at the) Pima County Fairgrounds. Like Gabrielle Giffords, I, too, am a Democrat who owns guns.

I bought ammo six months ago at the same place. Back then, there were plenty of T-shirts and bumper stickers calling Gabby un-American and threatening violence. This time, I was surprised at how low-key the rhetoric was. Only one vendor was selling offensive signs or bumper stickers (Pelosi name-calling, Obama with watermelon, etc.), and that vendor did not display anything pertaining to Gabby. Maybe the Republicans got our president's message.

The crowd filling the hall had nothing to say about the carnage. Most were going about ogling the "automatic knives," previously known as switchblades, available thanks to the Republican-controlled Legislature.

We Democrats do not go to gun shows and try to shove our political beliefs down attendees' throats like the National Rifle Association and Republicans do. Republicans care less about other people's lives or feelings than they do for their own precious rights. Republicans "toned it down" this weekend, because even they recognized the consequences of their political position after the horror of Jan. 8.

Kenneth Bertschy

In the Global Village, the U.S. Is as Dangerous as a Deranged Lunatic

Let me see if I've got this right: The current plan is to revisit that old plan of a "kinder, gentler nation," while we continue to thump on the noggins of any chosen neighbor here in the global village. The folks who steer our destiny turn the "global village" phrase off and on like a wall switch: on when they would have us embrace an item like NAFTA or some offshore manufacturing scheme; off when they would have us all step in line with some tight-sphinctered isolationist plan.

Imagine, for a moment, being any other member of the global-village community. Given our particular mode of behavior and our attitude displayed over time toward others, we would qualify as the one to keep an eye on.

We are the Jared Loughners of the global village.

Royce Davenport

It's a Game of 'Let's Pretend'

Gabby Giffords was demonized and slandered in the last election. Let's pretend that made no difference.

She had crosshairs on her district on a national website. Let's call that free speech.

A disturbed man walked into a local store and legally bought a powerful handgun. Raise a cheer for the Second Amendment.

Then he packed his ammo into a 31-shot clip. "But if he didn't have a big clip, he could have brought two guns," some will reply. Sure. He could have brought 76 guns, but at almost $500 for a gun and $40 for the clip, that sure gets expensive fast.

David Kelly

Corrections

In "A Morning Massacre" (Currents, Jan. 13), we accidentally spelled University Medical Center G. Michael Lemole's last name as Lemone.

In the Jan. 20 collection of photographs in the Currents section, the image of Dr. Peter Rhee was taken by Samantha Sais, not Josh Morgan.

In "Plate-Filling Goodness" (Chow, Jan. 20), we wrote that Panda Buffet opened earlier this year. Actually, it opened last summer.